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Goals Action study – Research project to determine if reinforcement in L1 will assist an adult education class in their English language studies. Role of L1 – Does the use of L1 facilitate learning in an L2 lower proficiency level classroom setting? What place does it have in Second Language Acquisition?

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Research Questions Is there a place for L1 in the L2 classroom? What is the role of native language in second language acquisition? How much of the native language should be used? Will the use of native language hinder or facilitate the learning of the target language?

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Total Number of Errors on End of Unit Assessments Total errors made on assessments. – 18 total errors Unit 7 (reinforcement in L1) had less errors – 6 errors Unit 8 (no reinforcement in L1) students committed twice as many errors – 12 errors

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Results of error analysis Twice as many errors w/o use of L1 72% of errors in Grammar – Grammar difficulties Vocabulary errors – all answered “yes” reinforcement in English would be helpful Grammar Errors – All answered “no” reinforcement in English wouldn’t be helpful Native country, age and gender did not play a role

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Questionnaire Sex:Length of Stay in the U.S.: Age: Highest Level of Education Completed: Questions Yes / No Should the teacher know Spanish? Should the teacher use Spanish? Should the students use Spanish? Is Spanish helpful for instructions? Is Spanish helpful to ask questions? Is Spanish helpful for vocabulary? Is Spanish helpful for grammar? Is Spanish helpful to explain the differences between Spanish and English? Is Spanish helpful to talk to the other students about the assignments?

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Results of Questionnaire Majority felt Spanish should not be spoken in the classroom – 80% said teachers shouldn’t use it – 93% said students shouldn’t use it 73% felt the teacher should know Spanish 87% felt it was helpful to explain the differences between Spanish and English It was split almost in half 53% for it being helpful in instruction, the same percentage for its effectiveness in vocabulary instruction. However, for grammar instruction it was only 33% stating its effectiveness

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Implications for Teaching L1 has an important place in classroom Amount of L1 spoken varies on class How do you assess when to increase/decrease Multiple uses for L1 Students’ attitude about L1 Teacher attitude about L1 Basic understanding of L1

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Conclusions L1 facilitates SLA Data supports the use of L1 to reinforce vocabulary and grammar in L2 instruction Students find the use of L2 beneficial in vocabulary instruction Proper reinforcement in L1 yields a higher success rate in L2 learning for lower proficiency level learners L1 has an important role in second language acquisition

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Limitations Should study be done using a higher proficiency level as a control group? Did curriculum being used affect results? Would the results have varied if participants were children?

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Acknowledgements My enrollment in LING 598 Research in TESOL & Applied Linguistics at Central Connecticut State University where I learned the research process Dr. Leyla Zidani-Eroglu for all of her instruction and guidance throughout my research project Dr. Seunghun Lee for his professional advisement on this presentation